Why sometimes it’s good to fake it

BarbaraOakley

Being called a “faker” is an insult that stings. We resent fakers — and for good reason. We see “faking it” as lying in action a way to dupe the gullible. And we hate to find ourselves among the gullible.

Not surprisingly, nobody wants to be perceived as a faker, and nobody wants a faker on their team.

Yet, it turns out that, the ability to “fake it” — as a mental tool rather than a way to scam — is a powerful engine of career change and the self-reinvention it requires. It means stepping into a role you aren’t quite prepared for and retooling yourself for it on the fly — drawing on the assets you already have and accepting your inevitable stumbles along the way as part of the process.

Understanding your stumbles this way, as well as developing a tolerance for the uncomfortable feelings that come with “faking it,” are valuable competitive assets in any self-reinvention. Of course, the ability to reinvent oneself is increasingly important nowadays, as artificial intelligence and other technological advances are launching waves of career upheaval and opportunity in many economic sectors.

In the years (and possibly months) to come, many jobs will be revamped, redefined, or even outright eliminated—and not just those of truck drivers and call center operators. A torrent of change is coming for lawyers, doctors, and others with years of expensive professional training — training which doesn’t make them immune from the job-plundering waves of new technologies.

Yet another common driver of career reinvention is job dissatisfaction. We may recognize — sometimes midcareer — that the job we’re in is a poor fit for our personality or needs.

Masters of self-reinvention — call them “mindshifters” — realize that the first step of breaking out of career dead zones and doing any kind of reinvention generally involves feeling like a fake. The psychological term for these feelings is the “impostor syndrome.”

These feelings of imposterhood often arise when we’re learning something new. After all, we usually are less competent than others who are further down the new path we’re taking. Psychologists commonly say that these feelings of imposterhood are bad — that we shouldn’t be thinking of how we’re not on a par with others; we should instead be mustering feelings of confidence in ourselves and our ability to succeed.

Rachael Oakley

Author Barbara Oakley

Master mindshifters know better. Rather than seeking to squash feelings of imposterhood, they embrace these feelings. Learning a new discipline is fostered by a “beginners’ mind” — an open willingness to grow and change. Such a mindset is—oddly enough—harder to achieve when you’re confident. Although confidence is important in long-term success, it may impede the openness to learning from others that is an integral part of growing into a new career.

In fact, overconfidence has killed many a potential personal reinvention. When combined with a shortage of competence, it’s dashed the plans of would-be restaurateurs. New non-profits go under when the well-meaning management team has an overly rosy view about financing their helpful intentions. Even scientists crash and burn. A distinguished professor of physics decided to shift to neuroscience. He set up a lab, got a post-doctoral assistant, and launched into research—but eventually found his lab shut down because he was too dedicated to his version of reality to learn from others in his new discipline.

Of course, if you fear career change because you’re starting from home plate in a field where others are already on third base, you’re not alone. The reality is, whether you’re switching from working as a language translator to becoming a mechanical engineer, or from being an Uber driver into computer programming, you have underlying meta-skills you can transfer over to enhance your new career. (Yes, even if you’re an Uber driver. Being able to talk easily and comfortably with others is an invaluable skill that many computer programmers envy—and need.)

During any career change or personal reinvention, you will inevitably have times—sometimes frequently—where you feel like a fake. Don’t shove them away. Embrace those feelings and use them to retain your openness. Meanwhile, keep going and growing. Eventually, you should look up from your new job and realize that you’ve reinvented yourself—and have indeed become the expert you had been pretending to be.

Barbara Oakley, PhD, is the Ramón y Cajal Distinguished Scholar of Global Digital Learning, McMaster University, and the author of the new book “Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential” (Tarcher-Perigee, 2017).

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